They were arrogant—too arrogant.
Mocking us from the other side of the desert, the demon general laughed and shouted loud enough for the entire Sahara to hear:
"We will send our soldiers one by one. Try not to die too quickly, humans."
It was clearly meant to provoke us… to demean us.
But the moment their first elite soldier stepped forward, all mages under my command moved instantly into formation.
"Formation A!" I commanded.
The top twenty close-combat soldiers sprinted forward.
The demon swung his massive obsidian sword, the air itself tearing… but a continuous barrier was already being cast overhead by our shield mages.
He struck the barrier—
A crackling boom shook the ground, but the barrier held.
At the same moment, an earth spike burst from the sand beneath him, aiming for his wrist, but the strike couldn't even scratch him.
Still, our unit had reached his feet.
"Formation K!"
The twenty soldiers rotated in a tight circle around the demon, while the support unit—hidden behind them—began channeling coordinated wind pressure.
A spiraling tornado formed around the demon's massive body.
Inside it, the frontline soldiers ignited their swords and slashed continuously, letting the flames merge into the swirling wind.
It was a dangerous formation—beautiful and deadly at the same time.
"Earth mages, spikes! Prison formation!"
Tower-sized spikes rose and hooked into each other, forming a temporary obsidian-scaled cage around the tornado.
"Retreat!"
A water layer wrapped around each soldier, cast by water mages, letting them slip out of the cyclone before the ignition reached full force.
The tornado brightened, then ignited fully—
A blazing vortex stretching high enough to brush the lower clouds.
Inside it, the demon shattered the earthen cage, ripping it apart with his sword.
The next instant—
He was in front of my eyes.
But our hilltop barrier activated at the same moment, blocking his strike with a ground-shaking screech.
"Fire!!" I roared.
Hundreds of bullet cannons, scatter rifles, wind slashes, and water bullets all launched at once by army with the elite soldier presented world wide .
A single small crack finally appeared on his chest—our first real damage.
His retaliation was brutal.
The shockwave of his swing forced our barrier units to their knees; five of them vomited blood.
"Support team—heal them and apply mana reinforcement!"
Behind me, healers rapidly cast recovery and enhancement spells.
"Wind mages! Sandstorm, now!"
A massive cloud of sand rose, blinding the demon temporarily.
"Water mages—flood his footing!"
A rushing wave slammed into his legs, momentarily slowing his movement.
Now came the hardest part—
"Increase oxygen concentration—raise the density at least 25%!"
"It's too hard!" wind soldiers yelled. "We can't reach it!"
"You can," I shouted back. "There is nothing humans can't do!"
They pushed harder—most of them burning through their mana—until oxygen finally increased.
"Flame soldiers! Ignite again!"
This time, the fire burned hotter—
Brighter—
Turning blue.
The demon's legs exploded.
Everyone froze except me.
"Water stored in the cracks expanded. The pressure shattered his lower limbs," I explained.
The demon general laughed in pure excitement.
"Humans… are truly amazing!"
"Everyone, retreat!" I shouted.
The general raised a hand.
"Gravity units—drop the copper spikes!"
From the sky, tons of giant, spike-forged copper fell—
Created over the last three days by human engineers and gravity mages.
One of the demons rushed to protect his ally with a barrier, but the fallen spike crushed him instead.
We even created a vacuum at the point of impact to increase shock force.
The demon general chuckled.
"Your potential is remarkable."
Then he snapped his finger.
"Four demons—march. Strategy D. Kill them."
Four more demons advanced, the front one carrying a large shield and axe, the two behind holding swords enhanced by mana crystals.
"Hyper cannon—fire."
The bullet—meant to mimic meteorite impact—pierced the shield demon, tore through him, and struck the second demon so hard his body entered immediate critical collapse.
Originally, this weapon shouldn't have been possible without mana, but engineers emptied the air from the firing passage and compressed the charge tenfold using mana-enabled micro-detonations.
Fifteen demons remained.
They rushed us with pure killing intent.
Two of them dragged the wounded one to heal him.
"Wind and water mages—prepare lightning path!"
Artificial thunder formed using water droplets, cloud density manipulation, and wind pressure.
My mana enhanced all of it.
The previous bullets had left traces of a lightning-conducting compound on the demons.
Lightning followed the path like a snake and—
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
All four demons fell—one kneeling, one cracked open, the third exploding entirely.
Seven demons down.
But our front unit was under constant counter-attack.
We loaded the hyper cannon again—only four of the next twelve demons were hit; the rest deflected the attack and killed ten of our soldiers.
Another lightning strike hit, killing only demons that still had conductive traces.
But the cost—
Thirty of our wind mages collapsed from mana exhaustion.
Ten fire mages died.
Healers were overwhelmed.
"Retreat!" I commanded.
A wide barrier was cast around the battlefield—not strong enough to hold elites forever, but enough to contain them momentarily.
We pumped oxygen into the enclosed battlefield—
Displacing nitrogen manually using stored tanks and mage enhancement.
The demons laughed.
"Do you want to make us sleep with gas?"
I raised my hand—
"Fire and wind mages—ignite!"
Blue fire tornadoes erupted across the battlefield.
Obsidian flesh melted; screams echoed as demons burned alive.
We kept it up until mages collapsed from shock, exhaustion, and mana burnout.
The obsidian structures were weakened.
"Earth mages—spikes!"
They rose and pierced through the melting bodies.
Thunder mages struck one last bolt, finishing them.
Wind mages collapsed completely.
Barrier teams were barely standing.
Healers were treating dozens of unconscious and bleeding soldiers.
Only thirty of us remained to face the general.
The desert looked like a laboratory test ground after a nuclear strike—
Sand turned glassy, demon bodies scattered, human blood mixed with melted obsidian.
Rain spells were cast to lower the heat.
The demon general stepped forward slowly.
"You fought better than I imagined…"
His crimson eyes narrowed.
"Now—the real fight begins."
He pointed his blade at me.
"General versus general."
The sand cracked beneath his step as he charged.
"Let's see how long you can survive, human."